Electric sign.



'No. 868,674. PATENTED OUT. 22, 1907. I

C. O. LINDSTROM. ELECTRIC SIGN APPLICATION nun APBHI. 1806.

CARL O. LINDSTROM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ELE CTRIC SIGN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 22, 1907.

Application filed April 7,1906. Serial No. 310,451.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL O. LINDSTROM, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Signs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to sockets used more especially with electrically operated signs, and has for its object to provide a simple and efficient structural formation and combination of parts by means of which an attachment of the sign to the ordinary screw type of electric lighting sockets can be effected in a manner to permit of the adjustment of the illuminated face of thesign to any de- The accompanying drawing is a front elevation, with portions broken away, and other portions in vertical section, of a sign to which thg present invention is applied.

Referring to the drawingsz-l is the usual casing or housing of the sign, of'any suitable shape and provided with a transparent front 2 of glass or the like, upon which appears the pictorial or other advertising matter.

3 is the attaching stem or plug by which the sign is at tached to the ordinary fixed socket of the electric operating circuit or system in which the sign is used. The socket engaging end of such plug is of the ordinary screw type and comprises in detail, a cylindrical member 4 of insulating material, carrying on its periphery a spirally threaded metal sleeve 5, adapted to screw into the correspondingly formed interior of the usual fixed socket of the electric supply system and have electrical connection with one pole of the same. The body 4 alsocarries an axially arranged stem 6, the headed outer end of which is adapted to contact with the usual centrally arranged button of the fixed socket aforesaid and through said button have electrical connection with the other pole of the electric supply system aforesaid; and in the present improvement, said stem 6 is of an elongated form and extends a distance away from the body 4 and into the interior of the sign casing for connection with one end of the circuit of the electrically actuated sign mechanism, as hereinafter more fully described.

7 is a revoluble inner sleeve attached to one end of the member 4 aforesaid, and adapted to fit and have turning movement within a fixed outer sleeve 8, carried. by the sign casing, as shown.

9 are wings at one end of the sleeve 7, for convenience in imparting revolution to the same in the operation of connecting or disconnecting the plug 3 to or from the fixed socket of the electric supply system.

10 is a cylindrical block of insulating material attached to the inner end of the fixed sleeve 8 afol esaid, and carrying on its opposite faces the radial conducting plates 11 and 12, hereinafter described; such block is also provided with an axial orifice for the passage of the inner end of the stem 6, as shown. The conducting plate 11, above referred to, has electrical connection at its inner end with the stem 6, aforesaid, by means of a clamping nut 11, screwing or otherwise attached to the end of said stem; while at its outer end said plate is connected to one end of the local circuit of the sign. vThe conducting plate 12, above referred to, has electrical connection at its inner end with the spiral conductor hereinafter described; while at its outer end said plate is connected to the lamp socket 13 of the sign and from thence with the other end of the local circuit of the sign.

14 is a spiral conductor, arranged in concentric relation to the stem 6, and insulated therefrom by an interposed non-conducting sleeve 15; such spiral conductor is connected at one end to'the spirally threaded metal sleeve 5 of the plug 3, and at the other end said spiral conductor is in contact with the conducting plate 12 above described.

16 is an incandescent electric lamp arranged in the lamp socket 13 of the. sign, and to the rear of the transparent face 2 of such sign, and adapted to illuminate the advertising or other matter thereon; such lamp is in the local circuit of the sign before referred to.

17 is a thermoelectric circuit interrupter of any usual form arranged in the local circuit of the sign and adapted to alternately interrupt and reestablish said circuit in an automatic and periodic manner, as usual in the present type of signs, and in order to attain an alternate illumination and non-illumination of the sign. I

18 is an olcctro-magnet, or other electro-magneti'c Inotor, of any usual form or construction, arranged in the local circuit of the sign, in series with the lamp 16, and circuit interrupter 17, as shown and adapted upon each make and break of said circuit in manner above described, to impart a corresponding intermittent operation to any usual or ordinary form of visible or audible signal used in connection with the sign for attracting attention thereto.

In the construction shown in the drawing, the electro-magnet 18 is of the solenoid type, arranged vertically in the sign casing with its armature core 19 provided with a striker 20 adapted to strike a bell or gong 21, and

give an audible signal under the influence of gravity at each break in the circuit. At the same time a pawl22 carried by said armature is adapted to engage and impart intermittent rotation to a ratchet disk 23, carried by a shaft 24, which may be the power shaft of a moving signal located in the interior of the sign casing.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In an electric sign of the t vpe herein described, the combination of a sign casing, lainp, a local circuit, and an attaching plug comprising a cylindrical body carrying a spirally threaded outer contact sleeve, a central contact stem in insulated relation to said sleeve, :1 revoluble sleeve attached to said body, a stationary sleeve attached to the sign casing and forming a bearing for the revoluble sleeve, a cylindrical body carried by the stationary sleeve, radial contact plates on oppositefaces of said body in insulated relation, a connection between one of said contact plates and the central contact stem, a connection between the other of said contact plates and the spirally threaded contact sleeve aforesaid, and a lamp socket connected to one of said contact plates, substantially as set forth.

. 2. In an electric sign of the type, herein described, the

combination of-a sign casing, a lamp, a local circuit, and an attaching plug comprising a cylindrical body carryinga spirally threaded outer contact sleeve, :1 central contact stem in. insulated relation to said sleeve, :1 revoluble sleeve attached to said body, a stationary'sleeve attached to the sign casing and forming a bearing for the revoluble splraily threaded contact sleeve aforesaid, and a lamp socket connected to one of said contact plates, substantially as set forth Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 4th day of April 1906. CARL o. LINDSTROLL Witnesses:

RUBERT BURNS, M. H. HOLMES. 

